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SPEECH 



HON. CHARLES SITGREAVES, 



OF NEW JERSEY, 



RADICALISM AND RECONSTRUCTION; 



SATURDAY, JUNE 16, 1866. 




WASHINGTON: 
PRINTED AT THE CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE OFFICE. 

1866. 



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RADICALISM AND RECONSTRUCTION. 



Mr. SITGREAVES. Mr. Speaker, from the 
hour that the guns of Fort Sumter inaugurated 
"the great rebellion," through the alternate 
defeat and success of our arms on a hundred 
battle-fields, when the capital was beleagured 
by hostile armies, and, in the apprehension of 
many patriots, the sun of our national exist- 
ence was about to set in darkness forever, I 
never doubted for a moment the final triumph 
of the Union. I saw the freemen of the North 
united as one man in a firm resolve to main- 
lain the compacts of the Constitution. I heard 
the declarations of the press that the Union 
must remain one and indivisible forever. I 
heard the representatives of the people in Con- 
gress declare by solemn resolution — 

"That this war is not waged on our part in any 
spirit of oppression, nor for any purposo of con- 
quest or subjugation, nor purpose of overthrowing 
or interfering with the rights or established insti- 
tutions of those States, but to defend and maintain 
the supremacy of the Constitution and to preserve 
the Union with all the dignity, equality, and rights 
of the several States unimpaired." 

I saw the Democrat and Republican, the 
farmer and mechanic, the professional man and 
the laborer, gather from every hill and valley 
of the North and march side by side to the res- 
cue of the imperiled Republic, bearing "the 
old flag," determined that not a star should be 
lorn from that glorious symbol of the Union, 
and resolved to maintain its entirety or to die 
in its defense ; but above all I felt that the God 
of Washington smiled upon our cause, and that 



the same holy fire of 1776 which He implanted 
in the bosoms of our fathers still glowed in the 
hearts of their sons. Such were my feelings 
through that long and bloody war and up to 
the time that I took my seat on the floor of 
this House. Imagine, then, Mr. Speaker, my 
feelings of astonishment and sorrow when I 
heard the majority of this House, and mem- 
bers on this floor, professing to represent the 
people, declare that the Union was not restored, 
and never should be unless upon conditions so 
degrading as could be adopted only by a peo- 
ple whose servile necks were fitted for the yoke 
of despotic power. Sir, when I heard mem- 
bers talk of reconstruction instead of restora- 
tion ; when I see week after week during this 
long session amendment after amendment pro- 
posed to the Constitution ; when I see the most 
important constitutional questions affecting the 
rights of the States and the dearest interests 
of the people passed with less discussion than 
an ordinary measure of finance at a town meet- 
ing, or an alteration of the rules of a debating 
club ; when I see the influence of radical ideas 
among the people, I would tremble for my 
country and despair of the perpetuity of the 
Republic had I not an abiding faith in the wis- 
dom, justice, and mercy of the God of our 
fathers. 

Mr. Speaker, why is this? Why is it, when 
from the outset of the rebellion our whole peo- 
ple have declared with one voice that no State 



could or should put itself out of the Union, 
either by peaceable secession or force of arms ? 
Why is it that when to maintain this declara- 
tion our soldier-sons have poured out their 
blood as no soldiers have ever poured out their 
blood in the history of nations? Why is it 
that when the people of the insurgent States, 
defeated in the trial by battle to which they 
appealed, yield up their theories of secession 
and ask to take their old place under the flag 
of the Union ? Why is it that when that in- 
corruptible patriot, Andrew Johnson, wielding 
the executive power of the Government, de- 
clares that the rebellion has ended, resistance 
to constitutional authority ceased, and recom- 
mends the immediate admission of their rep- 
resentatives that we may be once more a uni- 
ted people, with one Constitution, one interest, 
one destiny, that this Congress says " No?"' 

Let us examine some of the principal rea- 
sons alleged for this strange, unnatural re- 
sponse. 

1. We are told that " they have committed 
treason ; that they still nourish the heresy of 
secession in their hearts, and therefore they 
cannot be intrusted with the ballot, for the 
ballot in their hands would be used to destroy 
the Constitution and the Union." 

Mr. Speaker, this objection states two facts 
or truisms with which I most cordially agree : 
first, that the South has committed treason; 
and second, that heterodox ideas are danger- 
ous. Sir, ideas are everything in a republic. 
Ideas make and repeal laws and constitutions. 
Ideas make wars, rebellions, and revolutions, 
both in Church and State, and every true pa- 
triot and Christian will denounce heterodox 
ideas as the foes of God and man. The idea 
of sectionalism promulgated by radicals North 
and South for different reasons, but to effect 
the same result, has been the curse of this Re- 
public ; for thirty years the accursed idea of 
secession, the daughter of sectionalism, was pro- 
mulgated by the southern radical until it grew 
strong enough to bathe the land with fraternal 
blood. 



For thirty years sectional ideas, in conse- 
quence of slavery, sustained by British emissa- 
ries and British gold, have been promulgated 
by the northern radical until it culminated in 
the same bloody result. The fires of secession 
in the South have been quenched in that blood. 
The fires of sectionalism in the North are still 
fanned by the northern radical in hate, and fed 
by the fuel of vengeance in the vain hope that 
he may succeed in kindling a flame which may 
destroy the Constitution and Uniozi of our 
fathers. The ideas now so dangerous to the 
constitutional rights of the States, to personal 
liberty, and the perpetuity of the Republic is 
northern radicalism. Let radicalism control 
the ballot and obtain a permanent lease of 
political power, and republicanism will be au 
empty name. 

Mr. Speaker, in my discussion of this sub- 
ject I shall use radicalism and fanaticism as 
convertible terms. The radical is always fanat- 
ical and the fanatic is always radical. I also 
beg leave to state that my remarks on radicals 
and radicalism are not intended to apply to any 
member of this House. I have expressed sim- 
ilar views long before this Congress was elected. 

Mr. Speaker, there is no man on this floor 
detests treason and traitors more than I do, 
but I do not limit my detestation to southern 
treason and southern traitors. While I de- 
nounce the doctrine of secession taught in the 
South as leading to treason, I denounce the 
doctrine of the northern radical as equally 
damnable and leading to treason, rebellion, or 
revolution. 

I cannot see the justice of denouncing south- 
ern traitors and loading northern traitors with 
honors. I never could see why assemblages of 
" Union men and women" should greet with 
applause the orator who declared that " for 
twenty years he had tried to destroy the Union 
of the States and gloried in the fact," while at 
the same time they applauded the most bitter 
denunciations of southern traitors. Sir, I am 
for meting out equal and impartial justice to all 
traitors. The southern traitor declares his 



repentance, the northern traitor never has. 
The late unnatural war was brought about 
by radical fanatics, and every intelligent man 
knows it. The southern radical and the north- 
ern radical both aim for a dissolution of the 
v Union, and both aided each other with fuel to 
fire up the hearts of the people. The northern 
radical taught the people of the North to hate 
the people of the South with a moral and po- 
litical hatred, the southern radical taught the 
people of the South to hate the people of the 
North with a' moral and political hatred ; and 
this teaching produced its legitimate results. 

Sir, the testimony of all history and our own 
knowledge alike teach us that radical fanati- 
cism should be dreaded as the arch enemy of 
God and man, but most especially to be dreaded 
in a republican Government where the press 

- and speech are free. Radicalism is the same 

in every age, in every clime, and in every hu- 
man heart. It is a master passion, beneath its 
sway every principle of humanity, every finer 
feeling of the heart are burned and destroyed 
as the flowers of the earth are destroyed be- 
neath the burning lava of a volcano. Let us 
look at the page of history for the portrait 
of radical fanaticism ; we shall find it identical 

• on every subject. Look at the persecutions by 

the Roman Emperors against those who de- 
nied the divinity of Jupiter, refused to bow at 
his shrine, or to offer sacrifices to the Roman 
* gods ; for this, thousands of men and women 

were tortured with the most cruel tortures, 
were sewed in the skins of wild beasts and torn 
to pieces by blood-hounds, were crucified, were 
covered with wax and set on fire to light the 
imperial gardens of the palace. 

Look at the history of Mahomedanism ; im- 
bued with the fanaticism of their chief, the 
Mahomedan proclaimed death to the infidel ; 
he marched to exterminate the world or con- 
vert it to the creed of his prophet, and his 
path was marked by tears and blood and mil- 
lions of human skulls. 

Look at the history of Jesus, He who went 
about doing only good. Religious radicalism 



cried out not to release him, but Barrabas ; radi- 
calism nailed him to the cross and gloated over 
his dying agonies. Look at the persecution of 
God's ancient chosen people, the Jews, by the 
Christian radical ; in every nation for ages per- 
secuted, robbed, tortured, put to d,eath in the 
name of Him who taught "love your enemies." 
Look at the old French Revolution ; in the sa- 
cred name of liberty Frenchmen were turned 
into human tigers thirsting for human blood. 
France was filled with spies, informers, and 
provost marshals ; men were murdered by tens 
of thousands ; blood and carnage rioted through- 
out the whole land ; the rivers became putrid 
with human carcasses, and the streets of Paris 
were flooded with human blood. Religion, life, 
liberty, were all sacrificed by these radical 
monsters, and France became an earthly hell. 
The world beheld with astonishment deeds of 
horror that had no parallel in history committed 
by the gay and polite Frenchmen, and a nation 
boasting of the highest civilization transformed 
into incarnate devils ; and all this wag. done 
under the plea now urged by our modern 
American radicals of "liberty, fraternity, and 
equality." 

Look at our own land. The Puritans fled 
from religious persecution and sought these 
shores that they might worship God according 
to the dictates of their own consciences. They 
landed on the rock-bound shores of New Eng- 
land and there erected their altars ; they mul- 
tiplied and held the sword of civil power, and 
they sheathed that sword in the bosoms of those 
who worshiped God in a different creed ; they 
fined, imprisoned, banished, tortured and exe- 
cuted the inoffensive Quaker for daring to 
worship God according to the dictates of Ms 
conscience ; and continued their persecuting, 
bloody work until it was suspended by an or- 
der of the King. Th$,Massachusetts radical, 
foiled by the order of the crown, but still thirst- 
ing for human blood, commenced and contin- 
ued a persecution of old men as wizards and 
of old women as witches until no one felt safe. 
A single mistake in the recital of the Lord's 



6 



Prayer was sufficieut to consign a rnau or 
woman to imprisonment, trial, and death ; and 
not until the radical began to fear that he might 
fall a victim to his own accursed devices did 
reason resume her empire, and the people saw 
with grief that they had been used as the bloody 
tools and executioners of radical fanatics ; and 
all this was done and sustained and defended 
as the cause of "right and justice," and in 
the name of the Lord of Hosts. 

Look at radicalism within the memory and 
knowledge of every member of this House. 
Who has not for years previous to the rebel- 
lion seen and heard sectional hate inculcated 
at the public meetings of the people, in the 
pulpit, the press, the rostrum, the school- 
book, and in the Senate and House of Rep- 
resentatives, by radicals, North and South? 
Who has not heard the Constitution of his 
country denounced as "a covenant with death 
and a league with hell?" Who has not heard 
of the applause with which Wendell Phil- 
lips was greeted by radical assemblages while 
he denounced undying hostility to the Union? 
Who has not heard of radical petitions pre- 
sented to the Senate praying for a dissolution 
of the Union? Who has not heard of "the 
Helper Book," written by radicals, indorsed by 
sixty members of Congress, and scattered by 
thousands as a campaign document through- 
out the length and breadth of the land ; a book 
intended to inculcate sectional hatred, stir up 
civil war in the South, and dissolve the Union? 
And, lastly, who does not know that radical- 
ism, to promote the interest of southern trai- 
tors, pointed the pistol and nerved the arm of 
the assassin against the life of the lamented 
Lincoln? 

Ah, Mi-. Speaker, if the ballot is dangerous 
in the hands of the radical of the South, over- 
thrown and repentant as he is, is it not doubly 
dangerous in the hands of the radical of the 
North, buoyant and unrepentant ? Yet I would 
not, if I could, deprive him of it. Bad as the 
result of his teachings might be, it would be 
preferable, rather than to crush the freedom 



of speech and the press, for that would end in 
despotism. While, therefore, radicalism is the 
greatest and most dangerous foe to our institu- 
tions — for the mission of radicalism is, ever has 
been, and always will be, to destroy, never to 
conserve — I would combat it with the weapons -f 
of truth. I would enlist the patriot, the Chris- 
tian, the pulpit, and the press to expose and 
render it odious to the people, until it should 
sink, as its predecessors in history have sunk. 
beneath the scathing reprobation of honest 
men. 

2. They tell us that the white man of the 
South shall not have the ballot unless his vote 
can be neutralized by the ballot of the black 
man, or, in other words, that the votes of dis- 
loyal men may be neutralized or controlled 
by the votes of loyal men. By what right do 
members assume that the southern men are 
disloyal how ? The southron fought for an idea, 
that his paramount allegiance was due to the 
State ; an idea in the truth of which he was 
educated, and in support of which he appealed 
to the fearful hazard of the sword. The decis- 
ion was against him. He acknowledges his 
error ; he abandons his theory. He is willing 
to accept our -understanding of the allegiance 
due from the citizen ; that the allegiance to the 
General Government is paramount, and is 
willing to seal it with an oath. What more 
have we ever required of any citizen? What 
more can we require? Will gentlemen pre- 
tend that they have an eye of Omniscience to 
scan the secret recesses of the human heart 
and read the thoughts of their fellow-man? 

By what right do members assume that black 
men of the South were loyal to the Union ? 
Sir, the evidence is overwhelming that they 
were loyal to their masters; we were told dur- 
ing the war that without them the rebellion 
would collapse, and this was urged as a reason 
to proclaim emancipation. That proclamation 
encouraged the effort of the slave for freedom, 
and forbid any attempt of any one in the ser- 
vice of the United States to prevent that effort : 
yet three millions of slaves made no effort. I 



believe during that long war, when large dis- 
tricts of country could at any time be devas- 
tated by the slaves, outnumbering as they did 
the whites in many places two to one, there 
was not a single servile insurrection. That was 
a time when we should have supposed that the 
slaves would have struck for freedom. I do 
not denounce the black man for this ; I honor 
the amiability of his nature, the Christian for- 
bearance which prevented him from imbruing 
his hands in the blood of the white man, al- 
though urged to do it by northern radicals ; to 
that amiability and forbearance the white man 
intrusted his properly, his wife, his children, 
all he had dear on earth, and he was not disap- 
pointed ; confidence was met by confidence ; 
and this magnanimity of the black man will 
make the white man of the South his fast friend 
forever; this magnanimity of the black man in 
the hour of the white man's peril will do more 
to make the white man of the South give him 
the rights of ' ' a man and brother ' ' than all 
the legislative theories and denunciations of 
radicalism. 

The home of the black man and his posterity 
will be in the sunny South, side by side with 
the white man and his posterity, and the man 
who strives to excite animosity between them 
on account of race or color is an enemy to 
both. True patriotism, true philanthropy, will 
pour into the South the healing oil of love, not 
the bitter waters of strife. 

But we are told that the Constitution guar- 
anties "a republican form of government," 
and therefore every man should have the right 
of suffrage "without distinction of race or 
color" as a condition-precedent to the admis- 
sion of the southern States. Now, according 
to thi3 theory of the radicals we have never had 
a republican form of government, and "the 
great Republic" of which we boasted is a delu- 
sion and a lie. I have always been taught that 
suae degree of intelligence as well as virtue is 
necessary in the elector under a republican 
Government, but the radicals have told us for 
years that the body and soul of the black man 



have been imbruted by slavery, that education 
was prohibited to the black by southern laws, 
and he had intelligence very little beyond the 
brute creation. Horace Greeley, in his Tri- 
bune of June 2, says that "dissimulation and 
treachery are the natural vices of slaves," and 
we heard from the lips of a prominent member 
of the dominant party on this floor very re- 
cently, [Mr. Donnelly,] while he eloquently, 
and, I think, with great ingenuity of argument, 
urged a national Department of Education, 
that — 

"We cannot make bricks without straw; we can- 
not build a republic without intelligence ; we have 
found ignorance and rebellion everywhere associated 
together as parent and child. If popular ignorance 
has plunged Mexico into poverty, anarchy, and ruin, 
what shall it do for the United States? Can the same 
cause yield one result west of the boundary line of 
Mexico and an entirely different set of results east 
of that line?" * * » * "then let us 
eliminate that which is more dangerous than slavery, 
ignorance." 

Yet with the knowledge of all this, that we 
cannot build a republic without intelligence, 
the radical would put the ballot in the hands 
of millions imbruted by slavery, with intelli- 
gence but little beyond the brute creation, pos- 
sessing the vices of treachery and dissimula- 
tion, and by so doing give them the political 
power, in some States the actual numerical 
majority, in almost all, the balance of power, 
and yet profess that he does so "to guaranty 
a republican form of government." 

Now, Mr. Speaker, I do not agree with Hor- 
ace Greeley, that "dissimulation and treachery 
are the natural vices of slaves. ' ' The slave was 
not treacherous to his master during the late 
rebellion. Not treachery, but faithfulness, is a 
characteristic of the African race. I do not agree 
with my honorable friend [Mr. Donnelly] 
that "popular ignorance has plunged Mexico 
into poverty, anarchy, and ruin." I think if I 
had time I could convince him that the admis- 
sion to citizenship at the Revolution, without 
" distinction of race or color," and the misce- 
genation of the Castilian, the African, and tin- 
Indian has been the foundation of her "poverty, 
anarchy, and ruin.'' And I think I could con- 



8 



vince my honorable friend [Mr. Donnelly] 
that there maybe something in arepublic more 
dangerous than either slavery or ignorance ; 
that is, educated intellect without the education 
of the heart. The educated intellect of a vicious 
man only makes him potent for evil. Educated 
intellect made France of the last century a 
nation of infidels ; educated intellect told the 
people that there was no God but reason, and 
they bowed down to the incarnation of reason 
in the person of a naked prostitute. Educated 
intellect paved the way for a reign of terror and 
blood. But I do agree with him that a republic 
could not be built or exist without intelligence ; 
and while I would not. object to the ignorance 
of the few, as not dangerous to free institutions, 
I would object to the ignorance of the many. 

I have no prejudices against the black man ; 
I never had. I have always found him obli- 
ging, polite, friendly, of an amiable disposition, 
and with the simplicity of a "grown-up child." 
I would rejoice to see him an intelligent free- 
man. He now has the power, under God, to 
work out his own destiny. He is, when edu- 
cated, capable of self-government. But with 
these views, I would be false to my constituents 
and false to the Republic to give the control 
of entire States to masses of ignorant men, 
black or white. 

3. But we are urged to pass the several bills 
submitted to this Congress disfranchising the 
white man of the South and putting him under 
political control of the black man as "a punish- 
ment." 

Honorable gentlemen on this floor have 
advocated these bills on this ground almost 
entirely. Sir, I deny the power of Congress to 
pass any law for the punishment of treason or 
any other crime heretofore committed by south- 
ern men. The Constitution which gave Con- 
gress its powers, and which we have all sworn 
to support, says, in language impossible to be 
misunderstood, that — 

"No billof attainder or ex post facto law shall be 
passed." 

By what authority, then, do members on this 



floor urge the passage of ex post facto laws as 
a punishment for crimes? By what authority 
do members on this floor introduce bills which 
are in spirit and effect bills of attainder in their 
most odious forms? 

"Bills of attainder are such special acts of the Legis- t 

laturo as inflict capital punishment upon persons 
supposed to be guilty of high offenses, such as trea- 
son or felony, without any conviction in the ordi- 
nary course of judicial proceedings. If an act inflicts 
a milder punishment than death it is then called a 
bill of pains and penalties. 

"The punishment has often been inflicted without 
calling upon the party to answer, or without even 
the formality of proof, and sometimes because the 
law in its ordinary course of proceeding would acquit 
the offender. Tho injustice and iniquity of such acts 
in general constitute an irresistible argument against 
the existence of the power. In a free government it 
would be intolerable; and in the hands of the reign- 
ing faction it might and probably would be abused 
to the ruin and death of the most virtuous citizens. 
Bills of this sort have been most usually passed in 
England in times of rebellion or of gross subserviency " 

to the Crown or of violent political excitements, 
periods in which all nations are most liable — as well 
the free as the enslaved, to forget their duties and 
to trample upon the rights and liberties of others."— 
3 Story on the Constitution. 

And yet members in contravention of these 
constitutional safeguards of the liberties of the 
citizen, advocate bills in which the Congress, as 
a judicial tribunal, disfranchises citizens as a 
punishment for crimes heretofore committed, 
and not even restricting this judicial act to 
cases of individuals by name, as in England, 
but to large classes of the people without 
designating names. < 

Mr. Speaker, perhaps the proceedings of no . 
Congress that ever assembled under the Con- 
stitution have been watched with more intense 
interest by the people ; every one felt when this 
Congress assembled that its proceedings would 
be for weal or for woe to the unborn millions 
who will live and die under our national flag. 
The States, the people felt that it would be a 
struggle between a written Constitution, guar- 
antying the rights of the States and guarding 
the rights of the citizen, on the one hand, and 
the centralization of despotic power in the Gen- 
eral Government on the other hand. It had k 
been announced by the principal organ of the 



9 



radicals that this Government would be recon- 
structed under "the form of a republic but 
with the strength of a monarchy." No won- 
der that our proceedings should excite intense 
interest, for no more momentous subject could 

\ engage the thoughts or enlist the interest of a 
free people. 

Mr. Speaker, no man will deny that this con- 
flict has commenced. Sir, it will be "an irre- 
pressible conflict" until centralization is tram- 
pled into the dust under the indignant heel of 
a free people determined to maintain the com- 
pacts of the Constitution, or until the States, 
shorn of their strength, are yoked to the car of 
Federal power, and then a Constitution would 
be a mockery. 

The people of the United States have never 
indicated their desire for a change of the or- 

» ganic law by a reconstruction of the States. 
Sir, this Congress was not elected upon such 
an issue, and when, knowing this, I see a ma- 
jority of this House voting in favor of propo- 
sitions to change the fundamental law upon 
subjects always held sacred by the people ; 
when I see these changes of the fundamental 
law submitted to Legislatures elected without 
reference, to such changes, I tremble for my 
country. I feel if I could by so doing change 
the purposes of a majority of this House to 
centralize power, I would do what I never 
would do to mortal man, except for my God 

• and for my country. I would kneel as a hum- 

ble suppliant to my colleagues and pray them, 
for the sake of God, for the sake of a generous, 
confiding people, to pause until that people 
could be heard ; that they would attach to 
every, bill of amendment a requisition that 
it shall be ratified by conventions instead of 
Legislatures. Sir, as it now is, a Congress 
elected without reference to amendment of the 
Constitution may propose amendments, and 
these amendments may be ratified by Legisla- 
tures elected entirely on other issues ; thus the 
fundamental law maybe changed, not only with- 
out the knowledge, but against the will of a vast 
majority of the people. It will be according to 



the forms of the Constitution, but in violation 
of its very spirit and essence. 

Sir, that this bold attempt to override the 
rights of the people is contemplated by the 
champions of arbitrary power, and will be 
made, I have the proof. I read the follow- 
ing notice, published in the public presses : 

"Pennsylvania.— Governor Curtin has taken upon 
himself the duty of sending letters to the 'Governors 
of all the loyal States,' urging them to convene the 
Legislatures of their respective States, in order to 
take action on the proposed constitutional amend- 
ment which has lately been submitted to the country 
by Congress. The Governor of Massachusetts is re- 
ported as eager to respond, and is ready to call an 
extra session of the Legislature any Saturday after- 
noon." 

No doubt, sir, every loyal radical Governor 
is " eager to respond," while at the same time 
he will prate about the duty of Congress to 
"guaranty a republican form of government." 

From the number and character of the bills 
introduced as amendments of the Constitution, 
some members seem to think that two thirds 
of the Congress and three fourths of the States 
have omnipotent power to change the funda- 
mental law in all its parts. Sir, I deny that 
power. There are reserved rights of the peo- 
ple that were never surrendered, even under 
the power of amendment; among these may be 
enumerated the right of every mau to worship 
God according to the dictates of his own con- 
science — it is the inalienable right of every cit- 
izen now and forever — and to this may be added 
the right of suffrage. No State that ratified 
the Constitution ever contemplated a grant of 
power under an amendment of the Constitu- 
tion, to pass bills of attainder, ex post fado 
laws, to impose a tax or duty on articles ex- 
ported from any State, or to establish a mon- 
archy. Sir, if the Constitution when submitted 
to the States had contained a provision au- 
thorizing two thirds of Congress and thr^- 
fourths of the States to so amend as to deprive 
a citizen of the right to worship God, or to take 
away the right of suffrage, or to pass bills of 
attainder and ex post facto laws, or to impose 
a tax on the exports of a State, or to establish 



10 



a monarchy, does any sane man believe for a 
moment that it would have been ratified by a 
single State of " the Old Thirteen." Sir, our 
lathers felt as we should feel, that there are 
reserved rights which are inalienable ; that con- 
stitutions bind posterity, and that we have no 
right to bind posterity in the chains of arbi- 
trary power. Yet, sir, we have a bill pending 
for some time giving authority to Congress, by 
an amendment of the Constitution, to authorize 
the levy of a tax or duty on cotton, an amend- 
ment which, if passed, would repeal that sec- 
tion of the Constitution which was intended 
by our fathers to protect commerce and to pre- 
vent sectional legislation by the passage of 
acts which might injure or destroy the staple 
productions of a State in order to promote the 
interests of another State, a power which 
would array the cupidity of one class of our 
citizens against the interests of another class, 
the cupidity of the manufacturer against the 
producer, the commercial against the agricult- 
ural interests, and vice versa, to end in dis- 
content, rebellion, or revolution. 

Yet we have heard on this floor, in colloquial 
debate, from the lips of a member of the dom- 
inant party, a gentleman who, in cultivated 
intellect, respectability, and eloquence, ranks 
as high as any other member, the right of two 
thirds of Congress and three fourths of the 
States to establish a monarchy, under the plea 
that when the people were ready to make such 
a change they would be so demoralized that a 
republican government would not be worth 
contending for. Representatives of Illinois, 
Indiana, Ohio, Missouri, New York, Penn- 
sylvania, are you prepared to sanction this doc- 
trine? Are you willing to admit such a lati- 
tudinarian construction of the Constitution that 
your constituents could have the fetters of a 
monarchy riveted on their necks whenever 
three fourths of the States become so demor- 
alized as to require it by an amendment to the 
Constitution? Are the rights of your constit- 
uents to be governed by the demoralization of 
others? Is that a condition in the compact. 



either express or implied? Would your con- 
stituents submit to the wrong, or would they 
assert their inalienable rights by revolution ? 
Yet we have heard the right of Congress as- 
serted in bills and by members in debate to 
regulate suffrage. You know that the power 
to give includes the power to take away— a 
power to disfranchise the people at the arbi- 
trary will of a majority of Congress. Who can 
doubt that the power would be exercised in 
times of high political excitement? Are you 
prepared to give this sacred right of your con- 
stituents — the right of ballot — to the control 
and keeping of a majority of Congress? 

Mr. Speaker, I have been pained to hear the 
passage of bills urged in this House by an ap-. 
peal to the prejudices of party and the revenge- 
ful feelings engendered by the heat of the late 
conflict of arms. Legislation induced by pas- 
sion should never be the legislation of a free 
people in a free republic. We legislate and 
propose amendments to the fundamental law, 
not for a year or a century of years, but for all 
coming time. We seem to forget that when we 
legislate against the South or for party we legis- 
late for our own posterity. Suppose we should 
succeed in giving an ascendency to party or in 
crippling the South in her resources ; what is 
the life of a man or a party when compared 
with the life of an empire? Parties are ephe- 
meral. The places that now know the men of 
the South, the actors in the late conflict, in a 
few years "will know them no more forever," 
but the (Republic should and will (if sustained 
by wise legislation) endure forever. God grant 
that it may stand impregnable, in the future as 
in the past, against the assaults of traitors 
within and foes without. 

It is folly to make an organic law giving the 
power to promote the interest of one section 
at the expense of another section, however the 
interest of one section may be identified with 
the interest of another section now. That 
identity of interest will not continue. With 
the settlement of our vast Territories and the 
development of their vast resources, new com- 



11 



binations of interest and power will be formed. 
The God of nature has identified the interests 
of the West with the South, and the men of the 
West in the future will be the political allies 
of the men of the South, whether the men of 
the South are white or black. 

I need not say that every addition to the 
powers of the Federal Government, either by 
an amendment of the Constitution or by un- 
constitutional construction, is by subtraction 
from the powers of the States, and destroys the 
equilibrium of powers intended to check des- 
potism, and would leave the dearest rights of 
the States and the people at the mercy of a 
majority of Congress, which in a country of 
suck vast extent as ours, with such diversified 
productions, would inevitably result in sec- 
tional parties, sectional legislation, and hatred 

k of the Union. 

I need not say that constitutions are made 
for minorities not for majorities. I need not 
say with what fearful speed we are gravitating 
to centralization of power. Witness the tax- 
ation of State banks out of existence ; the pas- 
sage of bills by this House in relation to rail- 
roads ; the power assumed over the right of 
suffrage ; the attempt to destroy the independ- 
ence of the State judiciary under the penalty 
of fine and imprisonment ; the interference 
with and virtual repeal of State laws ; the power 
given to swarms of officers (including the officers 

y of the Freedmen's Bureau) to arrest and im- 
prison the citizens of every State ; but above all 
the conversion of the United States into a great 
eleemosynary corporation by the passage of 
the "act to enlarge the power of the Freed- 
men's Bureau," districting the United States, 
with the establishment of military authority 
over each district containing freedmen or refu- 
gees ; an agent in each county armed with mil- 
itary power, and authorized to supersede the 
civil power by trial and condemnation of citi- 
zens under the rules of the War Department, 
prescribed by the President, without trial by 

> jury; the establishment of poor-houses; the 

erection of school-houses, and the support of 



millions of paupers at the expense of the peo- 
ple. And this bill, which conferred imperial 
power on the President, and laid the personal 
liberties of the people and the independence 
of the State judiciary at the feet of military 
power, the greatest stride to centralization ever 
dreamed or attempted under our Constitution, 
was only prevented from becoming a law by 
the firmness of Andrew Johnson. For this 
act the name of Andrew Johnson will live in 
the heart of every friend of popular rights as 
a champion and defender of the rights of the 
States and liberties of the people in their hour 
of peril until the Eepublic shall cease to 
exist. 

The plan of reconstruction, embracing the 
refusal to permit eleven States to be represented 
in Congress, is a grand scheme to perfect cen- 
tralization. This plan of reconstruction pun- 
ishes the innocent as well as the guilty in the 
southern States, the loyalist as well as the 
traitor. Tennessee, who broke the chains of 
secession and stood in the ranks of the loyal 
States, with loyal representatives, is placed in 
the same category with South Carolina, and the 
powers of the loyal States are also to be cur- 
tailed under this plan of reconstruction. Who, 
sir, ever believed that the secession of traitors 
would reconstruct our Government ? Why, sir, 
Jefferson Davis, in the height of his success, 
never dreamed that success would result in a 
reconstruction of our Government, much less 
that his defeat would effect that result. Mr. 
Speaker, I am not surprised that this effort to 
reconstruct should be urged upon us. Many 
men have long waited for some fortunate chance 
to occur that might enable them to reconstruct 
our institutions. The great "Head Center" 
of the dominant party in this House, [Mr. Ste- 
vens,] with a candor that does him honor, 
recently said : 

" In my youth, in my manhood, and in my old age, I 
have fondly dreamed that when any fortunate chance 
should have broken up the foundations of our institu- 
tions and released us from obligations the most tyran- 
nical that ever man imposed iu tho name of freedom. " 

But thousands have prayed with more fer- 



12 



vency than my venerable friend ever dreamed, 
that this fortunate chance should never occur. 
Sir, the people neither demand reconstruc- 
tion nor centralization. They want restoration. 
The industry and business of the country de- 
mand immediate restoration. Thousands of 
farmers, mechanics, and capitalists are waiting 
to go South. Their industry and enterprise 
would in a few years make that fair and fruit- 
ful land, now desolated by war, to "bud and 
blossom as the rose," but they will not settle 
in a " conquered province," governed by mil- 
itary force. 

The financial interests of the country, the 
tax-payers burdened with the largest national 
debt upon earth, demand that their burdens 
should be lightened by an immediate restora- 
tion of the States, the industry, and produc- 
tions of the South. 

The friends of constitutional freedom demand 
immediate restoration as a measure vital to the 
preservation of the Constitution and perpetuity 
of the Union. The Christian — not the radical 
priest who preaches political " hatred and mal- 
ice and all uncharitableness," who sees that 
God is only a God of justice — not him, but the 
Christian who believes that God is a " God of 
love," ministers of the meek and lowly Jesus, 
who taught His disciples to pray "Forgive us 
our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass 
against us," demand it. 

Sir, the law of love and friendship is the 
only law that can bind this Union in enduring 
bonds. Sectionalism and sectional hate sooner 
or later will rend it asunder. The policy of 
statesmen should be conciliation, not vengeance. 
I feel no hatred in my bosom toward the seces- 
sion traitors of the South, or their allies the 
sectional radical fanatics of the North, although 
I believe, as much as I believe in my own exist- 
ence, that they alike are responsible for the 
blood of our sons. I would restore the Union 
of my country in forgiveness and mutual con- 
fidence. I would rest the foundations of the 
Union on respect and love. 
It is marvelous to me that statesmen cannot 



see -that sectional denunciation and sectional 
laws can never cement the Union of the States, 
can never command or inspire the respect of 
nationalities. Look at Ireland; centuries of 
sectional oppression have not turned the spirit 
of her sons or caused them to love their 
; ; union' ' with Great Britain. She was first ' ' a 
conquered province," then England by bri- 
bery and compulsion established "the Union," 
a Union commenced in perfidy, and which 
has been used by the British Parliament to 
restrict her commerce, to load her with taxes, 
and the result of which has been to drive 
thousands of her sons to seek liberty and a 
home under the flag of ' ' this great Republic. 
Has sectional legislation, has the rule of force 
instead of conciliation, made the Celt love the 
Saxon and "the Union?" No! the wrongs 
of the Irishman have been transmitted from 
sire to son with undying hate, and at this very 
hour one hundred thousand Irishmen now on 
our soil stand ready to avenge their wrongs 
and to give liberty to their fatherland. This 
hereditary feeling of the Irish was "most elo- 
quently expressed by President Roberts in an 
address to the Fenians, as follows : 

"The concentrated" wrongs of centuries are in our 
hearts, and give strength to the perpetual longing for 
Irish freedom which neither time nor obstacles can 
quench." 

Mr. Speaker, Ireland will yet be free, for — 

"Freedom's battle once begun, 
Bequeathed from bleeding sire to son, 
Though baffled oft is ever won." 

And where is the friend of human freedom 
in this land that would not rejoice to see the 
Irishman break his shackles and Ireland stand 
a disenthralled nation in the family of nations ? 
Yes, sir, Ireland will yet be free; "the green 
flag" will again float over that beautiful isle, 
and then, andr not until then, will the "epitaph 
of Emmett be written" on bronze and marble, 
as it is now written in every true Irish heart. 

The soldiers who fought for the restoration 
of the Union, who gave their blood to restore 
the supremacy of the Constitution and the laws, 
will demand that the Union conquered by their 



13 



arms shall be restored. It will be folly to- tell 
them that they fought in vain ; that they fought 
to dissolve, not restore, the Union. If this 
Congress fails to restore the Union of the 
States (and Congress is the only obstacle to 
that restoration) they -will say that radical 
ideas have done what the armies of traitors in 
the field could not do — prevented the restora- 
tion of the Union. No glittering generalities 
like the glittering veil of the false prophet of 
KliOBQSsan can deceive them. You may talk 
to them and repeat the stereotyped phrases 
about "the right," "humanity," "indemnity 
for the past and security for the future," 
"brotherhood of man," "hands dripping with 
human gore," &c, and you may frame bills 
with titles proposing to facilitate the restora- 
tion of the Union, while they in effect post- 
pone it, but they will tell you that they fought 
for immediate restoration, not for postpone- 
ment. 

The Democratic party demands to a man the 
restoration of the Union. That grand old party 
who always maintained the faith of compacts, 
who always stood as faithful sentinels on the 
ramparts of the Constitution, who never in 
legislation knew any East or West or North or 
South, who from the time the foundations of the 
Constitution were laid warned the people against 
sectional fanatics, and repeated the warning 
until they were scoffed at as "Union savers;" 
that old party by whose policy, under God, this 
Republic marched steadily onward to a posi- 
tion of power and resources that has placed 
her in the van of nations, a party without whose 
united aid in men and money during a rebel- 
lion inaugurated by sectional parties the Union 
would have been swept like chaff before the 
whirlwind, that grand old party demands im- 
mediate restoration, not reconstruction. 

Mr. Speaker, there can be no evasion now 
of the great issues to be tried before the tribune 
of the people, union or disunion? the consti- 
tutional rights of the States or centralization 
of power in the General Government ? 

Sir. if the southern States are out of the 



Union, then is our flag, intended as the emblem 
of the union of the States and power of this 
great Republic, in truth what a radical once pro- 
claimed it, "a flaunting lie," and you should 
tear eleven stars from its glorious constellation. 
Mr. Speaker, let this agitation cease, now 
and forever. Let us heal the wounds of our 
bleeding country. Let us restore the Union 
before we adjourn. It can be done in an hour. 
Let us do it, and the patriotic shouts of the 
people will greet our return to our constitu- 
ents, and an impetus will be given to industry 
and enterprise which in its results will aston- 
ish the world. 

Let us repudiate all hatred, all sectionalism, 
in our speeches or legislative acts. Let us act 
on the principle of " malice toward none, with 
charity for all," and we will bind the Union in 
bands of iron. 

Let us lighten the burdens of the sons of 
toil by lifting the taxes from the necessaries 
of life ; but above all, let us inaugurate the sys- 
tem of "eight hours a day" for the laborer and 
mechanic in the employ of the Government. 
It would pioneer the way to a general intro- 
duction of the system into all the departments 
of industry. Let us give the laborer and me- 
chanic time to cultivate his intellect, to study 
the Constitution of his country, to commune 
with his family and teach his children, to wor- 
ship God, to relax his nerves. Ah! who can 
tell, as has been eloquently expressed in song 
by the gifted and respected wife of a laborer 
in the city of Trenton : 

" Who can toll what harps are hushed 
By the roar of forge and wheel; 
Or what mighty minds are crushed 
'Neath oppression's iron heel? 

" Masters ! count the gain, the cost, 
Labor pays from every pore. 
By the grand inventions lost, 

Shrouded stars and buried ore. 
Brothers, cast your bonds away, 
Give the word, ' eight hours a day.' " 

Let us remember that the stability of the 

Republic under God depends on the working 

men. They compose our armies : they man 

our navies ; they pour out their blood in our 

defense ; they are never defiled with political 



14 



corruption. I solemnly believe that if the lib- 
erties of this country are ever destroyed by for- 
eign force or domestic treason that the last 
hand that will uphold the last standard of free- 
dom will be the hand of the working man, and 
in his bosom liberty will find her last resting- 
place. Let us do this, and we will bind the 
heart of the working man to his country and 
its institutions with ties that cannot be severed 
by human influence or human power. 

Let us double the pension of the soldier who 
was maimed or disabled in the service of the 
Republic ; give him at least enough to supply 
his necessary wants through life. Do not let 
us calculate his services by dollars and cents, 
or the increase of the national debt. He was 
the means of saving to the country the richest 
territory on earth, which, without his services, 
would have been lost to the Republic. Do not 
let him wander through the nation, whose life 
he was the means of preserving, in a condition 
but little above the condition of a pauper. And 
let us show to the living that we appreciate his 
services by doing our duty to the memory of 
the dead. Alas! we cannot give our thanks 
to the gallant dead. Three hundred thousand 
torn by shot or shell or bayonet, or destroyed 
by disease, "sleep the sleep that knows no 
waking" at Arlington, Andersonville, Gettys- 
burg, and on the soil of a hundred battle-fields. 

" The muffled drum's sad roll has beat 

The soldier's last tattoo; 
No more on life's parade shall meet 

The brave and fallen foe. 
On Fame's eternal camping-ground 

Their silent tents are spread, 
And glory guards with solemn round 

The bivouac of the dead." 



They cannot receive our gratitude, but let 
us do what we can to honor their memory ; let 
us double or treble the pension of his wife, 
made a widow, and his children, made father- 
less, by his devotion to the Union. 

Let us do this, and we shall never want for 
soldiers who will spring to arms against foreign 
invaders or domestic traitors. Let us avoid 
the exercise of all doubtful power. Let us 
maintain the supremacy of the civil over the 
military power. Let us maintain the independ- 
ence of the judiciary; the freedom of speech; 
the freedom of the press; the right of trial by 
jury, as rights inestimable to the people "and 
formidable to tyrants only." Let us foster and 
promote public virtue. Let us establish a com- 
mission before which the loyal and innocent 
victim of the arbitrary power exercised during 
the rebellion may prove his loyalty and inno- 
cence, and thus save his name from the brand 
of treason and his children from the humilia- 
tion of being pointed out by the finger of scorn 
as the offspring of a traitor. Let there be pro- 
vided a redress for every wrong committed 
within the limits of the Republic; then our 
laws will be reverenced, and the proudest title 
that a man on earth can boast, will be, "I am 
an American citizen." 

Let us do this, and the Republic will be per- 
petual ; then we can look with an eye of faith 
through coming ages and see our people the 
most prosperous on earth ; united under one 
God, one Constitution, one destiny, and oui 
beloved Republic, standing immutable in hei 
strength then as she now is, "the asylum of 
the oppressed, the home of freemen." 



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